Too Much Writing

A friend suggested I need to take a break from writing, but I can't think without writing, so I'm not sure how to do that. But being a little preoccupied at present with work (mostly writing), I cheat with the blog today, offering some words of wisdom from wiser heads than mine about this madness we call writing instead of actual original content (am I forgiven?):

There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.
~Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.
~Ray Bradbury

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.
~E.L. Doctorow

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
~Sylvia Plath

First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not...Forget talent. If you have it, fine. Use it. If you don't have it, it doesn't matter. As habit is more dependable than inspiration, continued learning is more dependable than talent... Finally, don't worry about imagination. You have all the imagination you need...Persist.
~Octavia Butler

I am a galley slave to pen and ink.
~Honore de Balzac

What a writer wants to do is not what he does.
~Jorge Luis Borges

I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.
~Gustave Flaubert

1. Find a subject you care about.
2. Do not ramble, though.
3. Keep it simple.
4. Have the guts to cut.
5. Sound like yourself.
6. Say what you mean to say.
7. Pity the readers.
~Kurt Vonnegut

I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die.
~Isaac Asimov

Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
~Tom Stoppard

Many red devils ran from my heart
And out upon the page,
They were so tiny
The pen could mash them.
And many struggled in the ink.
It was strange
To write in this red muck
Of things from my heart.
~Stephen Crane